Down the rabbit hole
by Suryallee
Summary: Leon gets some unusual help from an harmless old lady M/M, don't like, don't read. D/L, others mentioned.
1. Chapter 1

**Down the rabbit hole **

**Disclaimer: **

Pet Shop Of Horrors, the characters (with the exception of my made up OC's) and neither the manga do belong to me in any way or form! They belong to their rightful owners by law and the artist. I make no money from it and neither plan to do so in any kind of the future!

_Seems I cannot write one shots anymore, goody! Dunno why thought. It originally was one but turned this afternoon into 23 pages?! I was just checking it over and correcting and before I knew it, it had already grown to that length! Aaaargh! _

_Oh, hit me please! Suryallee _

**Chapter one, formally the mentioned One-Shot…oh hell! **

"Hey, granny, are you sure you are alright? Nothing broken or so, Yeah?" Leon peeled himself from the sidewalk he had fallen onto with the old lady in his arms when he had earlier just barely rescued her from being smashed flat like a pancake under a car. The driver was long gone and her carried bags lay in a heap next and around both. A man picked up some apples that had fallen out of one of them.

Thanking him, Leon carefully set the old woman back onto her feet when he had stood up.

The old woman gave him a pat on his arm. "Oh yes, my dear boy!" She smiled beatifically and benevolently up at the two heads taller officer. "Don't you worry so much! I am fine… oh dear! My groceries!" Leon, despise feeling a bit hurt from him taking the worst of their fall, bend to help the elderly Chinese woman to pick up the goods and to put them back into the bags.

Finally finished he turned with a barely muted sound of pain while grinning like a boy at the small Chinese woman that gave him a look that told Leon clearly that she had heard him wince.

"Oh poor boy, you got hurt because of me."

Leon shrugged it off. "Isn't the first time I got hurt on my job, don't ya worry, m'am. Here, your groceries… you live far from here?" He told and asked her with another beam. The elderly woman smiled gracious up at the tale and in her opinion handsome police officer before she shook her head. "No, just two houses from here." In the end, Leon helped her home while carrying her bags under the weird stares of the people of Chinatown.

He shrugged it off.

He had heard the mutters of some in the department of her being an eccentric and very eerie old woman that the community seems to adore and fear all in one. He had never given anything about rumors or about stupid people before and would not begin with it now, Leon decided. That car driver on the other hand, he had his number memorized and would visit that asshole once he was finished here! To hand him his damn ass, for nearly driving over the petite old lady and him!

Also, there was the animal related latest case about that Leon needed to ask the Count about still.

His original goal for being here in Chinatown in the first place. He stole a glance at the old Chinese lady that walked slowly next to Leon. Seemingly, she was fine. He secretly heaved a sigh of relieve. Leon had been worried that she had been injured or maybe shocked. Again, his keen eyes checked her covertly over before he let it slide.

Why had no one of her family gone and bought her shit for her? Didn't they care about her living next to the strongly used road right before her door?

He felt miffed now. Maybe she was like Miss Unger, from the flat next to his and had no relatives? Leon often went to buy her groceries along with his. He would look if he saw the old lady walk around alone again and if she had no one, he would find someone for her to help her. Moreover, D still tried to avoid his questions, darn it! Back on track again, he noted wryly. The Count was always on Leon's mind in the late. Almost as if the two of them were an old married couple with issues, this time Leon snorted.

Unknown to Leon, next to him the *old Woman* listened into his thoughts.

The weird looks she received came only from those who did not know what she was. The others greeted her with deep respect bordering on open fear. Miss Wu was one of the protecting spirits of LA's Chinatown and actually, she just looked like a human being. In reality, she was a dragon but the poor child next to her did know nothing of that luckily or else, Leon would have run screaming already that she figured with mirth.

Since a while now she had seen D and Leon tiptoe around each other like cats onto a hotplate, she snorted softly.

That young Kami needed a companion and the human next to her had now two times saved one of her kin without to get anything in return, or even thanked for it. Neither had he ever asked for anything else as the truth and a bit of trust. Leon had such a hard life, she never saw him with a girl or boyfriend either. Miss Wu thought about that a bit. He also had no clue that he had a daughter… this time she grinned a bit. Well, she thought, she would no longer stand by and watch just because the Kami's were equally stubborn as the detective next to her. And in her eyes, Leon needed a keeper as much as the young D needed one.

A blind man could see the goodness and the big heart in Leon: she made up her mind when he turned to go on her doorstep. She had right the right thing to fix the dilemma of both, Miss Wu thought. It would help the boy surely, she was certain of that.

"Thank you, detective. I would like to give you something in return, please?" She gave Leon her best puppy dog look along with weaving a little spell around him to follow her request. She knew how immune the man seems to be to those. Had seen him more than one time escape one cast on him without to even notice it!

Leon was something else, all right. However, she had already known that since a while, so, nothing new here.

He nodded after a while reluctantly. Not feeling well with it at all. "B..but I only did what is right and my job and…!" He tried to back out, no avail the old lady gave him such a wounded look that Leon melted instantly. "Ohhh alright! But I really need nothing in exchange for helping one in need, Ma'm. I like helping those who need it, honestly." He ended up with suddenly holding a weird looking stone on a small necklace. It didn't look expensive to Leon but one never knew with Chinese people.

"It is just an old talisman of my late husband", she told him with a small smile, seeing his questioning look and inwardly laughing madly at his barely concealed mistrust.

"Nothing of worldly worth for me but I believe in its power to help its wearers. Please do me the honor and wear it? I would sleep easier if you do." That did the trick along with her begging look. Leon took it with a grumble and let her put it around his neck after fumbling with the uncommon lock on it. When he finally went home, Miss Wu watched Leon go with a wide smile on her elderly features.

Unknown to Leon, she did know very well about the magic of this specific amulet.

It was made of a rare grey-green piece of Jade. Worth a lot more as Leon's old and battered car and most likely the rest of his possessions together. However, its real worth lay in its powers to help one find the best possible future and happiness that ones heart deserved. When she had laid it around Leon's neck, she heard the answering echo of the stones powers to the pureness of Leon's heart and soul and the secret wishes he did burry under all of his rough exterior and gruffy words all the time.

He so feared to get hurt again all the time that it almost made her cry.

All the sorrow about his brother, his life and about his stubbornly ignored attraction to the youngest Count slowly ate away on the poor boy. The stone would fix that, and it would fix Leon. Miss Wu was sure. With a whistle, she went inside to make herself something to eat so she could later hunt down that driver. He would have a nightmare of the different kind this night, one, out of that he would never wake again. The nerve of that man! To nearly run her over…

The closing of her door made it vanish from the wall it had been in.

Leon went home not much later that day. He had a badly set of sprained rips, a big bruise on his ass and was off duty for the rest of the week to heal it out. His low curses filled his rooms out while he changed clumsily into his pajama pants. He hated it when he was forced on sick leave! His chief had taken one look at him and had send Jill off with Leon to the hospital after reading his report. With another curse, he sat gingerly onto his bed and stared at the wall across him with unseeing eyes. The stone necklace already forgotten hanging around his neck. He finally put out the lights and went to sleep.

This night, Leon had the weirdest dreams ever in history!

He saw different ways how his next year would run for him as well as what his live would be if the visions played out. They usually ended with him chasing D hopelessly over the world and never finding him. In some of the dream futures, he ended up killing the Count, in others, he was killed and in others again, he killed himself. In all of those dark futures, he never told D what he felt or denied his attraction to the Count.

Then there were some dreams that did not end that badly.

One particular scared Leon a bit. It was as if it was showing him what could be if he did not do a few things in the future and would accept instead what the Count always seems to do in his dreams. With him as Leon's lover and friend. In the next morning, he could remember what he had dreamed about, and it scared him shitless. Leon awoke less refreshed as hoped and went on with his day in a sore mood and much to mull over.

He called D to tell him that he was off duty due his *slight* injury's and that he would get his brother from D the next evening.

Staring at the receiver, Leon wondered why he had felt so glad to hear D's voice and why the hell he had feared for a second that D could be gone and the line dead?! A new wave of pain ended his musings and Leon took two of the pills he had become against the pains and went back to bed. Hopefully, he would feel better when he woke the next time around!

This time, he dreamed of animals that turned into humans and back. Saw the goat thing of D as a young man with red hair and than as the tiger sheep again. The entire night he dreamed of things that his brain could not fully understand and yet begun to accept as normality that was not reality. He knew somehow that he dreamed this all but somehow he also begun to understand that he did not in a way.

The scenes were all featuring past events between Leon and D.

At one time, working on the rabbit case he had thought he had seen babies instead of rabbits, his brain chose to remember this in his dream. Now dreaming about it again, he only saw them as such for the entire dream memory along. Creepy, little baby's that had a murderous intent in their inhuman eyes. He also saw what had lead to them multiplying so fast in the first case and now suddenly he did no longer pity the woman and her husband but the beast rabbit that they had bought.

He dreamed of the chef and D again.

Of the man named Wong, who in his dream now looked… odd to Leon. More like his body was hiding another one inside, a ghostly presence within of it that seems to overlay that of the Chinese man all the time. He saw something that he couldn't have in reality, the man in jail while he killed himself. The form seemed to blur and then there was suddenly a red head with ram horns standing in front of the madman. Slicing the body free of it's restrains with his claws and then he helped the insanely babbling man to rip his own heart out of his chest to eat it in the end!

Even asleep, Leon shuddered at the sight, feeling nauseated from the entire thing.

He saw the man with the horns and the red hair turn into the favorite goat pet of D and stroll off to the shop. The times seemed to change and Leon saw it bite him sometimes and then play with his brother. Play and protect his little brother, take a bullet for him and cuddle up contently with Chris.

In the meanwhile, the boy/beast went out at some nights and hunted down thieves, murders, and drug dealers to eat them after killing them, until nothing much was left.

To then return to the shop to sleep at Chris feet in his bed. Somehow, his anger at it slowly went down when seeing this over and over again and somehow he slowly understood that it was merely a beast that ate humans as humans ate cows. That he somehow saw it as a human being as well as a beast. Why thought, Leon was clueless about. As if something wanted him to understand something or to make him see a reason?

It wasn't something that Leon could understand or accept easily.

When he awoke, this time he was hellish confused and it was barely three in the morning. He took another load of pills, used the toilet and ate something before his eyes grew heavy again and he fell asleep on his couch to which he had emigrated too in avoiding his bed and the weird dreams of these last two naps.

Right in front of the still running TV.

This time he dreamed of the many cases he and Jill had to take on in the past months. Each time he saw what lead to the demise of the humans in the end. Saw why they had died, what darkness's had lurked inside of the, oh so innocent, people. In the most cases, he soon found himself pitying the beasts that went with them as much as he wanted to shake the humans until they would see their stupidity and wanted to make them see reason, to change their ways for the better.

Sometimes the humans and pets seem to work out; in one case, he saw D and the girl with her dog or the other girl with her horse. The latter had him cuss up a storm at D. He had known that that damnable Chinese guy had used him somehow to cheat!

He also saw his friend, the boxer and his bird and was glad that those two had worked out.

He slowly got it, that D was dealing out punishments to the humanity in a way. That the pets not necessarily were meant to kill their humans every time but that the humans broke the contracts repeatedly. Even Leon soon felt angry with the buyers for being so thickheaded to not head three simple rules all the fucking time!

Could not even understand why the most broke their contracts in the first place!

He awoke, cussing up a wild streak at them all this time. Sitting up from the floor he had fallen onto Leon made his way to his bed under groans of pain. Once there his eyes told him that it was now six in the morning and much too early for him to be up and about. He fell back asleep before he had ended that thought.

This time he dreamed of that Alexander person and his life. What made Leon feel regret to not have known the vampire better but also glad that his odyssey was over.

Then later the dream changed and showed him an unknown man named Vesca Howell. The agent seem to hunt down the father of his D and he could only stand by and watch Chris leave with Josie and Sam and then later D vanish from him as he had done in other dreams before. He saw the scenes two times more before he finally screamed in his dream in his frustration what seem to put the entire thing to… a… stop.

Suddenly he stood in a kind of vortex, a kind of grey nothingness.

Shaking his dream head, Leon tried to make sense of all of this and failed. He sat down in the grey mist and rubbed his dream face. He did not want D have to leave because of that Howell guy, did not want the old agent to die, did not want to have to shoot D's father because he had gone nuts! He slowly realized that he did not want to see the beast cry because Chris was gone, that he did not want to lose Chris ever again or D to flee them both and him to have to chase him all over the world.

Nevertheless, to what did that lead him then in the end?

What was this? A kind of bad remake of the three ghosts of the past, present and future and the old scrooge?

Alternatively, was it a kind of supernatural warning, help, whatever?

Hell! Leon thought, this all was soo weird in the first place that he could not get his brain wrapped around it all!

So, what did he want? Because this all seem to want to make him to think about that.

Leon slowly realized it, that something wanted him to make a decision. He sighed and stared around in the grey around him as if searching for a kind of idea, help or a pointer. Unsurprisingly, he found none. Sighing again, Leon rubbed his face anew and cursed. This was all too much! He went once again through the memories of his odd, foreboding dreams.

If he had understood it right, this all was about his dreams, wants and wishes.

So, what did he want? What did he wish for? What were his deepest desires and dreams?

This time he screamed in his anger. Wasn't that what D always told him that his shop sold? Yeah, suure! He saw that this night and how that usually played out in Technicolor, all right. Leon scowled at the thought. He had to give it to D, he had in a way, sold them just that, love, dreams and happiness. What they had wanted and sometimes even more than that. The most were just never content with what they got, that was it!

They had usually wanted more and had often such twisted dreams, wants, desires and secrets that even Leon had to shudder and become angry with them.

Leon scowled and upgraded that to, they never truly wanted what they told and always had wanted something else in their hearts instead of the said and that taint in them, D had sensed somehow and sold to them in the end. Like those two senate men who had wanted to buy a Kirin, not even understanding what that actually was or implied. One of them still lived and Leon had the hunch that many innocents would die because of his wish granted by the Kirin in the end. Their blood would be the payment for the wish of the owner, of the chosen sovereign of the beast. So much, he had understood from that weird dream.

What brought Leon back to his own dilemma of having to come to terms with what he wanted in here?

He crossed his arms and scowled at the endless grey above him that seem to mock him. He had always thought that he lead a simple life. That he had reached what he wanted and such. He had his dream job, earned enough money to live a halfway problem free life. Had friends, occasional one-night stands with cute woman… Leon really thought he had been contend until he met D.

From that moment on, his life had been turned upside down.

He scowled again, so what did Leon really want and wish for? Not much Leon soon realized himself, just a few basics and since a short while he realized, he had developed new wishes, wants, and dreams. That he had learned to love different things and persons in his life again. The death of his mother had scared him off of everything remotely loveable and had made him close up to his brother even, Leon realized slowly.

What he wanted, dreamed and hoped for was simple, really.

He loved his little brother and did not really want to give him back again. Leon realized that he would have to get a bigger flat and more stable work hours and that he would have to stop drinking and smoking if he wanted to keep Chris with him and sighed. No longer thinking of it to send him back to his aunt and uncle.

What else?

Howell came again to Leon's mind. He did slowly get aware of the similarities between his obsession with his D and that of the older agent with what seems to have been, D's father. Scratching his head, Leon grunted at that revelation in annoyance. In his eyes the two older ones needed their heads bashed together for their stupidity to fail in simply accept the other. He growled when he realized that he too did that in a way with his D and cussed again.

They had much in common and yet… nothing at all, Leon realized.

The older D had a serious psychological problem and needed to get his mental state checked, Leon thought and Howell? He did need a reality check just as bad as the older D in his eyes. He and his D had no mental problems like these two, but for that, others to solve out that were just as bad. D with his sore focus on what the dreams showed Leon to be his task in this world. To deal out punishment to his fellow humans for their crimes at Mother Nature and the animal kingdom and D's believes that all humans were bad. Leon on the other hand, he had a problem with his emotional scars. They prevented Leon from getting too close to another being again in his fear to be hurt again.

To loose someone important to him again.

However, if he was honest here, had he not already grown too fond of D? With a grunt, Leon angrily accepted that he had and that he did fear to loose him already too damn much! D was one of the few beings in this world Leon really cared about. Maybe, even more then cared… Leon scowled at his own trail of thoughts and scratched his nose in his unease.

If the dreams were right, he would lose him soon anyways, wanted or not and he did Not want that!

He wanted to keep his friend for as long as he could with Chris and himself. Wanted to be his friend, really and truly. In addition, maybe, a little more even? Yeah, Leon thought, as if D would ever let him near him! Hell would freeze over before that happened if he had understood the dreams right. It all saddened Leon in so many different ways that it hurt him. What was wrong with it to befriend… whatever the Count and his family was?

The animals came to his mind; they too would not accept that, Leon was sure.

The memory of Pon Chan, snuggling up to him all the time he was in the shop came to Leon's mind. As well as the various animals, that did always do the same. Suddenly he wasn't so sure anymore about that. Still, Leon was a human and as such a taboo as he understood it. This was pointless; he complained in his mind and groaned.

He wanted to keep his closeness with D, wanted to keep his brother, wanted them all to have a happier life, even wanted the damned goat or whatever T-Chan was happy and what?

Stay together?

He reviewed his dreams and found that they had built an odd family with the time. Somehow, they all had ended up being a very odd family… Leon stared wide eyed into the grey mists. Now that was a funny thought, he mused. Or not at all. There was some truth in this odd revelation. He wondered if D sometimes saw it the same way and concluded that D must fear that nearness of them all. Fear to become too attached to Chris, Leon and humans in general.

He scratched that out of his mind for, too attached to Chris and Leon only.

Somehow, he realized it that the family of D would never come to love humans in any way in the future to come… but why was that this way?! Because humanity constantly destroyed the world and killed animals? He was not really sure here, but thought it could be that and maybe something else Leon had no clue about yet. D valued the life of an animal over that of a human any day. He had gotten that much in his past dealings with the Chinese shopkeeper. Leon suddenly felt depressed, as he saw it, there was simply no way for his wants and dreams to ever come true.

Just like the poor Howell and the elder D, they would never find happiness? He felt suddenly like crying. He did not want that! Leon wished he could change fate, that of his D and him as well as that of Vesca and his D. Unknowingly to Leon, the stone around his neck glowed one time when he came to his startling conclusion.

The mist dispersed suddenly and his awareness slipped away from Leon.


	2. Chapter 2

**Down the rabbit hole **

**Disclaimer: **

Pet Shop Of Horrors, the characters (with the exception of my made up OC's) and neither the manga do belong to me in any way or form! They belong to their rightful owners by law and the artist. I make no money from it and neither plan to do so in any kind of the future!

**Chapter two, **

This time he dreamed of nothing he could remember and when he woke up, he felt strangely relieved and depressed at the same time. Grunting in pain, he got out of his bed and washed up since he could not shower. He ate a light breakfast and went a bit unsteady out to his car. The entire way to the shop, he thought about his weird dreams until he had to concentrate on the drive safely.

He ended up ramming a car by accident on the street to Chinatown.

The driver had lost his control over his wheel for all Leon could figure, because the car had suddenly moved into his way like that. Luckily, he had not used his usual speed. Getting out of his car, he realized it that the other driver looked a bit spooked and still sat behind his wheel like spellbound. Leon, not feeling well himself, bit back his anger and kneeled next to the driver, only to discover surprised that it was D?

No, his mind supplied, not his D, but the father. The hair was much longer; he felt a shudder run down his back and groaned inwardly.

Maybe his dreams were not simple dreams at all? The prospect scared Leon but he showed his thoughts into the back of his mind and helped the other D instead out of his car over to his to then go and park the limousine, to then drive the two of them to D's pet shop. Next to him the man came slowly too and when he saw where Leon had brought him he went chalk white. Even tried to escape when Leon helped him out of the car under the protest of his cracked rips.

Something told Leon that it was necessary for him to bring D's father in here and so he did.

"Hey, D! I accidentally got nearly run over from your brother or whatever family relative to you this guy is! At least he looks like a carbon copy of you with longer hair. Come out and help me with him already, damnit, this isn't a fucking joke!" D's pale face told Leon volumes about what he did to the both of them, because the older one was just as white faced as his son. Still, Leon let not go on him and forced him down the steps.

One hour later saw the two D's have a fight inside the backroom of the shop.

While an amused Leon found himself back in the front room. Selling a pair a fish as a substitute of D. How Leon had ended up doing that, was still beyond him but somehow he figured that to interrupt the two hissing at each other incensed in Chinese in the other room, was a very dumb thing to do. When the couple had stumbled in, he had simply done it. He laid the money on the counter and looked down at T-Chan and Chris.

"Think that the two will stop to fight anytime in the near future?"

He asked the Totetsu bemused. The goat creature shook its head, feeling as exasperated as Leon did. *He says, no and that he doesn't think so, Leon.* His little brother helpfully told Leon who smiled at that. He nodded and when a man came in he gave the beast a secret smirk. "Then you better tell Chris how much what in here costs or if I better go and kick a customer out because I fear I am otherwise selling something I shouldn't, ok?" He whispered to the stunned looking tiger sheep before he went to the man, who looked confused at the two fighting twins of hell behind Leon and the other two.

Behind him, Tetsu eyed Leon shortly oddly before he gave him a nod and trotted after Leon, while Chris helpfully begun a running commentary inside of their minds for Tetsu and Leon.

The fourth customer after that man who bought a bird, soon turned out to want something different as a normal pet. When he entered the shop, Leon felt the hairs on his neck stand up and he saw Tetsu stiffen at the same moment. It told Leon volumes and he shrugged at the goat. "I think this time D has to do this alone, huh? Do me a favor and get one of them out here?" He whispered and Tetsu nodded vehemently. Already was half running off to the back room of the front shop where the two still argued in Chinese with each other.

Leon heard a snort behind him and then an exclamation of surprise in Chinese before a swoosh of silk warned him that one of them came over.

The one coming out wasn't Leon's D, it was the father and he stalked over to the haughty looking businessperson and wife with such a dangerous smile that Leon wisely went out of his way. Walking over to the counter, he leaned around it to look after the other D. He found him behind the curtain right next to the counter, staring oddly at Leon.

The detective shrugged at his confused look.

"You two seemed to need to catch up and argue something important out." He told the stunned D calmly. "Besides that, I originally wanted to tell you about my weird dreams last night, I remembered you telling me that your family hates hospitals and so I brought that guy here instead." He shrugged again watching D's father vanish with the couple in the back rooms of the shop. Next to him, D gave Leon confused and bewildered stares.

"What weird dreams, detective?"

Leon nodded. Pointing down at Chris, Leon mumbled a, later to the other. Before D could ask for more, his father came back with the couple and what looked like a hyena to the stunned Leon. He gave the intent at him staring D a short look. "Do I even want to know why your shop has a hyena in the back?" He murmured questionably to D, still watching the couple sign a contract. D shook his head with a small smile.

"I don't believe you would want to know that, detective."

He whispered back in the same manner and turned to the couches again. Leon watched him with a lopsided smirk before he felt someone stare at him and turned to the older D who seems to look at him with a fully befuddled expression. As if, he could make no sense of Leon's actions and neither of Leon himself.

"You sold a man a parrot?" He suddenly asked Leon who nodded calmly. "Yeah, you two were busy so we figured to leave you alone for a short while?" The father of D looked now even more confused at Leon that still stood casually leaned at the counter.

"And a hamster to a father and son." Leon nodded again.

"And a fish to a man." Again, Leon nodded. "Are you feeling alright?" Leon asked D's father, concerned when he noted the older D blanch more and more. The other shook his head surprised at Leon. "You… you are really concerned!" He told the amused and confused Leon across of him who slowly felt that it would be better for the older D to sit down soon.

Nodding his blond head, Leon took the man by the hand and did lead him over to where D looked concerned over to the two of them. In the meanwhile, his father still babbled on.

"But you can't be concerned and you can't go and sell animals while we are squabbling!" He told Leon in a bewildered child's voice while the man brought him to the couch of D and helped him sit down softly and carefully.

Chris darted over to their D; the other man slightly worried the boy.

"And why is that?" Leon asked calmly while he too sat down and handed D's father his cup of tea. The Chinese man looked down at his tea befuddled and then back at Leon. "Howell never did such!" He stated almost outraged and Leon found his suspicions confirmed. He calmly took the cup D did offer him and nodded at the older D's words.

"So, basically because your Howell would have never done this, everyone else should also never do it?"

He serenely asked the obviously badly bewildered father of D who looked suddenly thoughtful at the question. Visibly calming down a bit. Then he nodded and took a sip. "Actually that's what I have always thought. Obviously you are not like him in that respect." He told Leon who smelled trouble brewing and gave Chris a glance.

"Hey little brother, why don't you and T-Chan and Pon-Chan go and get us the cake I still have stored in my car and bring it in here, hmm? Would you do that for your injured bro?" He asked the youth with a smile while giving the beast a nod with his chin into the direction of the door to the shop. Tetsu nodded back and took the hem of Chris shirt in his mouth to steer the boy out. *Sure!* Chris mind voice told them all and gone the three were.

Leon turned around again to give D's father an unruffled look.

"I am not him, you know and neither is every one other the same either. That's the way it is. Do I remind you so much on that guy?" Beside Leon, the man nodded first, then he shook his head again. "Yes, and no, detective Orcrot, was it?" Leon gave a short nod and took a sip of his tea this time. The other watched him like a cat would a do mouse… a rather extraordinary mouse.

Leon chuckled seeing it what made both looks alike in the room arch a brow at him.

"What is so funny?" His D asked suddenly getting curios of why Leon had not exploded by now, still kept calm and oh wonder of wonders, seem to even manage his precarious father at the same time. Leon shrugged once more. "Your eyebrows." He told them cryptically and sipped anew from his still hot tea.

His answer seems to befuddle both.

"Why is he not behaving like the others?!" The father suddenly asked D a bit irritated. D shrugged this time, not knowing either and feeling just as mystified as his father. The latter huffed and went back to give Leon baffled looks. Out of the blue, he pouted at Leon and his son.

"That's not fair! He does not play by the rules. He should look confused at us both but instead he looks like he knows why we look the same! Do you know that, detective Orcrot?" His eyes had taken on a dangerous quality that strangely enough, did not really faze Leon.

He gave the older of the two D's a calm nod.

"You are related? I mean, you could be brothers, twins even. It is just…" Leon shrugged at their avid gazes. "Just, what, Leon?" His D asked suddenly alerted. Knowing from past experience that Leon was sometimes too insightful for his own good. Leon raised his hands in a manner that told the two others that he did not exactly know either. "It is just that I think somehow that you aren't? That he," He pointed at the D that his dreams had shown him to be the father of his D, "somehow gives me the feeling that he is older as you? And now I sound so weird!"

Leon scowled; both D's looked utterly perplexed.

All three shrugged in eerily unison and went back to drink their tea.

"You mentioned strange dreams, detective san, have they to do with this?" His D suddenly asked Leon. The other D stared at his son and then at Leon who this time scowled at his teacup in his own befuddlement. "I don't know the fuck either, D! They were a whole load of bull and confused the shit out of me, damnit!" He exploded unsuspected what earned him a twin voiced, "Language, detective!" From both D's next to him.

He gave both a scowl and then ducked his head in the end at the twin glares of the two others.

"Sorry. It was really weird and I think the d… I mean those weird painkillers must have done something to my brain, you know." He sheepishly shrugged what had the odd effect of having both D's give him a strangely amused and concerned look now. To be honest, the two scared him a little with that.

Leon chose to not mention that and helped Chris instead to put the cake box onto the low table all sat at.

"Hey, what's your name anyways? Can't go and call you second D, now can I?" He addressed D's father, something seem to tell him to not give too many information's away to them now and so Leon did. The father shrugged amused. "You may call me Doc, detective Orcrot. Since we both are named D."

His eyes were positively gleeful; Leon ignored it stubbornly and nodded amicably instead.

"Alright, Doc it is then. And why do I have to tell each new one of your family that I meet that I have a name and not only a position, D!? Its Leon, use it please? This is ridiculous, really." He grumbled under his breath at both D's next to him what had both arch a brow at him again and look at each other amused and slightly confused again.

The bat bunny watched this all from the back of the couch across of all three. Clearly as befuddled as the two on the couch.

Inwardly Leon laughed his head off at the look from the tiny creature directed at them all that in his dreams had turned into a third of these strange people. He did take an offered plate, piled the strawberries of his cake onto it, put it over in reach of the beast before he went on, and ate his cake under the now utterly mystified looks of all three creatures in the room, plus the many animals.

No one could make a head or tail of Leon today and it vexed them all.

He gave them all a confused look. "What?! I thought you told me to be nice to him and that he loves those berries, D!" The spoken to D shook his head with a rueful smile at Leon. "Sorry, my de… Leon san, you are correct, that I did. I just never thought you had heard me, I apologize for that." Leon gave him a murderous glare but chose to ignore this too, along many other things before today and ate his cake instead.

Across from him, Q-Chan looked a moment like fainting before the bat bunny caught himself and hopped down to ate his strawberries happily.

Next to Leon, Chris beamed at him while he let T-Chan drink from his carefully held cup of tea with too much cream inside. Leon scowled at the tea but ignored that today too. He slowly got very good in ignoring, he realized with an inward shrug. When he took another slice, Leon struck out his tongue at an peeved D before he went and put his strawberries again on Q-Chan's plate and then insolently ate his cake with a wide grin.

Next to him, D sputtered at his childish act but chose not to comment it for once.

Huffing and glaring holes into Leon's skull, he took his own next slice and munched angrily around on it in the end. The one called Doc looked with odd amusement at Leon and D and laughed into his cup of tea after a while madly. After a while, Leon apologized himself and Chris and went back to his apartment.

Under the speculative looks of two D's and one bat bunny.

The damn goat did not move from Chris side and in the end, Leon gave it up, took him by the scruff of his neck, and simply handed him to his bro. telling D that he would take him too since the cursed beast had grown so attached to his little brother and out of the doors they were. Before D could even utter a complain.

What befuddled and amused D immensely.

His detective had gotten rather insolent in of late but somehow he could not find the energy to feel mad about it. He sipped from his tea and faced his father fro a new round of arguments to find him gone and staring out of the windows after Leon instead. He walked over to him with a sigh and steeled himself for a long night of debates with his father about his unusual human pet.

Leon knew nothing of this; he drove them all to a diner and ordered a take out from a clearly frightened waitress.

Somehow he remembered to only have taken Tetsu with him… so why then had that one animal multiplied while he wasn't looking? When he had looked into the backseat at Chris to ask for his wishes he had suddenly found a snake, the raccoon/badger, the goat and the many-tailed fox next to his bro too. Together with a small Pekinese at Chris feet, a small bird on his shoulder and two cats of unknown origin perched onto the rims of the seats. Sighing Leon choose to use his newfound ability to ignore almost everything until it came and bit him in the ass and simple went and ordered a lot more as had been the original plan.

Their food was rather fast done and Leon chose to ignore that too and paid quickly to get the menagerie home before a colleague stopped him on the way.

Back home he gave the entire group a stern look.

"I am soo not the one here that will explain it to D why you guy's went AWOL on him tonight, got that?!" Every single head of the odd group including that of Chris, nodded swiftly at his gruff words and run quickly inside the apartment to hide from the miffed cop on sick leave. Leon stood in the door for a short moment longer. Looking at the ceiling as if he expected wondrous help from above.

When had his life become so fucking complicated?!

Then he went and put the food onto plates for each including a few sunflower seeds that he had for feeding the doves in the park of his office and went to phone D to tell him that he had a few more pets over as planed. In the end, Leon slept peacefully and without weird dreams this night. Inside a bed, filled with various animals, his brother next to him and the window open to let air in.

The bat bunny watched the odd sleeping arrangement with wide eyes from the windowsill.

The snake had wound around Leon's left ankle, the two cats a tom and a queen lay on each side of his head on the pillows, Tetsu had scored the place in Chris arms and Pon had settled in Chris back. The Pekinese slept peacefully on Leon's stomach while the fox had curled up to Chris feet.

The bird had taken refuge on Leon's head.

Shaking his little head at the odd scenery, the bat bunny flew home again after a longer while. Whatever was going on with the man, it could not figure it out in the moment and simple put: this all was confusing it a tad too much. Since when had Leon become so responsible? Calm even? The bat bunny shook its head anew and tittered on his way home in its befuddlement.

Suddenly the creature turned mid-air and zoomed back to the open apartment window.

Once inside it eyed the painkillers oddly with a speculative glance and took one finally with it to bring it to D. Maybe there was something with that stupid human medicine that was working oddly on Leon? The tablet did not smell any other as the bat bunny thought it should, still: trusting was one thing and making sure another.

One could never know for sure and it had somewhat grown fond of the brash man.

An hour later could see three beings stare confused at the message of a computer in a lap hidden inside a building. The one known as Doc shook his head, there was nothing weird inside the pills, he was sure. "Maybe he is simply allergic to a part of its ingredients?" He quizzed, yes quizzed, since he had no other explanation for the human's odd behavior the last evening.

Leon Orcrot was a riddle for the father of the current youngest Count.

The D next to him shook his head firmly. "No. I saw him take them before without that effect!" He told his father equally mystified of his Leon in off late as the older one. He still couldn't wrap his mind around it that Leon had sold a few of his animals the last evening and had calmed even down his capricious father!

The bat bunny scratched its head and squeaked baffled. If it wasn't the stupid pills, then what had made the man suddenly become a miracle to all of them?

The following weeks went on like that strange day.

Leon tried his hardest not to let anything slip of what he knew and do the right things at the same time while two D's tried to wretch his secrets from the poor cop. While the bat bunny watched them all, make fools out of themselves. It simply did not get what was going on; much like the two caretakers of the animals too did not.

It was mind wrecking!

Oddly, Leon kept on with his weird insights and more often than not, shocked all three into stupor with odd reactions to events or them in general. One time he made the one called Doc laugh that madly at something he had said that his son feared he had to call a healer to calm him down again!

Leon, being his confusing straightforward self as always nowadays, had just asked Doc if he should go and spank that Howell person for him.

D's father needed days to stop laughing every time the poor detective was around. He was now suspiciously often in the shop. Watching D and Leon interact, Chris, and the animals play with each other. The two Orcrot brothers seem to mystify him greatly. As they did confuse the bat bunny too, from the looks of it. Whatever he said to drive Leon crazy, the cop just thought over it and then gave him often an answer that shut the father up, too stunned to wisecrack back a retort for the most times.

D could not understand anything at all anymore.

When Samantha showed up with Josie one day, he was there too and watched the boy surprised hide behind him with T-Chan in his hold. The youth had gotten used to the father of D and knew instinctually that the longhaired one of the two was not fond of people who hurt others. As Chris had thought it, the mere look of the elder of the two D's made Sam nearly recoil out of the shop again.

Doc had an aura around him that made other humans as Chris and Leon nervous to be around the sometimes-insane D.

When he heard the entire story of Sam telling Chris that he had killed his mother when he had just been born, the father of D grew strangely silent. Crossing his arms at the two girls, he stared them nearly down to tears in their seats across him on the couches. Looking down at the frightened and sadly to him clinging Chris, the older D finally scowled at the two girls. "So… you want to take him home, yes?" The older one gulped and nodded slowly, this D gave her the creeps.

"Does Leon san know it why you are here?"

Doc asked them all too sweetly and Josie knew the same moment he spoke this that the man across of Sam and her was not giving them Chris out before she had Leon's ok. She gulped again, suddenly feeling rather uncomfortable under the low growling and hissing sounds of the animals of the shop. They seem to want to hurt her and Sam out of the sudden.

The Chinese man smiled a cold snake like smile at the two girls while he patted Chris comfortingly on the shivering golden haired head. The boy currently leaned against D's side and clutched Tetsu to him. Sam had prior tried to apologize for her childish behavior back then but Chris only reaction had been to hide inside of Tetsu's fur who had snarled at the girl nastily.

From all the animals in the shop, Doc had seen the Tao Tie bond the most to the silent boy.

Only, what Samantha saw as a, at her snarling tiger-goat-dog mix, Doc saw as a young red haired male with ram horns and claw like nails that he obviously wanted to swipe across the girls neck. He never thought, left his place in front of Chris who still hid in his back from his stepsisters. Next to both, Pon sat perched onto the cushion if daring them to try to sit here, her claws too were unsheathed.

Doc had to laugh silently at the possessiveness the animals showed towards the boy child.

This moment chose Leon to walk in; suddenly feeling like Chris could be gone otherwise. Slightly out of breath, he glared at Josie who cowered away from his look in shock. She had never before seen her cousin that angry! The two blue eyes spit literally fire at them both as her mother had told her that they had at her father and her at Christmas last year and she suddenly got the odd feeling that Chris would never again come home to them in the future.

Unknown to Leon, the stone glowed faintly when he strode over to the two girls after looking at Chris to ask them some really uncomfortable questions.

Doc also failed to see the soft glow since he sat with his back to the advancing man. He watched the following drama unfold with mirth and an odd sense of smugness. Somehow over the last weeks, he had grown fond of Chris and the loud detective that was so unlike any human he had ever meet or been told about.

The man was a force unlike any other he had ever seen when set on teaching someone a lecture as he currently did to the two cousins of him and Chris.

He made them apologize to D in the end for barging into the shop as they had done to demand Chris from him. Once the two were gone, Leon excused himself after checking on his still shaking brother and went outside to phone his lawyer. He had already set in motion to have the custody of his brother and even a good chance to get it.

In the last months Leon had settled over into stable work hours, had made tests to verifies that he was not drinking and smoking anymore. The latter had made Doc's son so happy that he had practically cooed at the confused looking Leon when finding out. Leon had gone and changed his housing to a small but comfortable flat, right next to a school known for taking on special cases like Chris, had demanded a raise that had been due and had talked with the agency that did deal with problems like his brothers and his.

Leon had in short, turned around himself to get Chris live permanently with him here in LA.

So far, he was rapidly succeeding and stunned the D's, plus one bat bunny, majorly with that. Leon seemed not to notice that, he sorely focused on his brother in the late. In between, he had helped Doc in his apartment with moving boxes without to bash a lid at the strange animals the man housed with him there, had stunned his chief and partner with working up nearly all the overdue cases of their office and writing himself into the university for studying up on other offers of his carrier.

None of the D's had known that Leon was actually literate and that he had good grades in his school times.

D tittered at that revelation for weeks. Doc knew that his son had planned to send Chris back but he had his doubts that this would have worked out as wished. Even his father had been surprisingly silent when he had stalled the plan with waiting for Leon. The bat bunny Count had stared at the girls with a strange look, that doc did not like to see. The one that the old Count normally used in the past for his customers of the special kind.

He watched the man come back and get Chris home with him, apologizing again for his imposing family and gone both were.

Again, to Doc's utter amusement, with many animals in tow as lately it had become a habit.

**Suryallee **


	3. Chapter 3

**Down the rabbit hole **

_Is anyone reading this even? I must have lost my touch because no one is even complaining^^! _

_Sury_

**Chapter three, **

When Leon showed up on his job the next day, to give in his plead for some of his free days since he needed to clear up some ends with his lawyer, his chief told him to take two weeks off instead. That an agent would soon come over and that he wanted Leon out of that ones way out of a point Leon did not get until he heard the name of the lead agent, Howell.

Outside the building, Leon stood a short while in front of his old battered car, before he sat into the drivers seat and went to the apartment building on his way home.

Once inside, he asked Doc if he had known that his friend Howell was coming here. Doc looked shocked for a moment before he shook his head thoughtfully. "No, but I think I will go and meet him while he is here, Orcrot san." He told Leon with a strange grin that had Leon arch a brow at him. Doc did all he could to look as innocent as possible back to the darn insightful cop in his living room.

Leon wasn't fooled.

"I hope you know what you are doing, Doc. Just don't go and mess up our lives here in the follow, ok?" He gave the D known as Doc a lopsided grin. Doc echoed it faintly. "Just… so you know, it isn't too late for me and go back to the office to spank his ass, you know?"

He told Doc with a warm smile. His words had the father of D laugh softly.

"Oh no, Leon san, don't you worry yourself sick with my problems. I think I found a way to handle… him. However, you should go and visit my… family after this visit of yours. I have the feeling that the young Count will need you in the eminent future." He told Leon cryptically before he shoed Leon out and turned to get his things done. Leon just hoped it wasn't that virus he had dreamed about and went with a bad feeling in his stomach in beeline to the shop.

Two hours later he stood face to face with an unpleasant forty something old, agent Howell inside of the shop. Right in front of the shocked looking D and Chris, while cussing up a wild streak at the man that did the same back at Leon. Not letting him or the others lay D in cuffs and trying to explain to the odd at Howell and Leon looking group of agent's and cops that Howell was wrong here.

The two hotheads nearly had a brawl right inside the foyer of the shop, until one of the other agents in the room with them suddenly had a message texted to him that told of another, slightly older looking man, looking like D had just been sighted on the airport. Howell made comically wide eyes when confronted with this, then slowly got it in that Leon had told him the truth and that there was another one that looked like a twin to this D.

Looking back and forth a few times between the picture of Doc on the laptop screen that showed the person on the airport and the younger Count inside the shop, the agent hastily departed while cursing madly together with his group to catch his D.

Right under the startled looks of Q-Chan, D and Chris, right behind the scowling Leon.

A short while later, Howell came back alone and incensed to interrogate D about the other look alike. Doc had seemingly vanished from the airport just a few minutes before they had arrived. Only to find out, yes, they were related and no he did not know were the other had went to. Leon had the sudden urge to send Howell to the apartment and did so. Lately his gut feelings had never proven wrong when it came down to deal with any of them all.

When the bunny and his D gave him an angry look Leon glared back.

"Just trust me this time, ok! I have the strange feeling that he should be there?" He threw his hands up in his own confusion of being so freakishly sure about that. D closed the doors and the bunny suddenly changed into the Count. Right in front of Leon who squinted first at it and then broke out into an unbelieving: "I knew it! These weird dreams really were true visions, hot damn it!"

Needless to say Leon had a lot of explaining to do in the next fife hours.

In the end, Count D called Sofu from his grandchild while looking not older as D himself and D set stunned across of a tired Leon. Chris had fallen asleep, leaned against Tetsu at Leon's feet. "I wonder why you had these future visions at all, Mr. Orcrot. Somehow this feels as if one of the fates stepped in but I don't know why one of them should have done so, to be honest." The former bunny gone Count sighed wearily. Over the last months his grandson had become deadly attached to Leon and to Chris as well. Sofu had too, to such an extent that he slowly got the feeling that it would only grow in the future.

Those two were nothing ordinary at all.

Giving the sleeping Chris a look he begun to tell Leon a story that was so unbelievingly that it stunned Leon wordless for once. About an ass of an emperor and his quest to marry a being that wasn't what he thought it to be in his greed for gaining immortality for himself as well as their powers to his command. He told Leon of the murdering of an species and of the pledge of the survivor to protect the animals and to deal out justice to the human kind for them.

To Sofu's utter confusion Leon thought long before he answered uniquely as usual for him.

"Uhh, no offence, Sofu san, but what exactly has that shit to do with Chris and me?" Both creatures, that Leon now knew to be Deities, gave him a strange look. "Pardon?" That came from the younger D.

"I mean D, as I have understood my strange dreams, it is your duty to deal out punishment only to those who deserve it, am I correct here?" At the nods of both Counts Leon went on, mostly musing loudly to himself in a way that Leon used when trying to figure something important out. "So tell me then Count D, do either, Chris or I really deserve such punishments too? Honest answer please, D."Leon was kind of fishing here and he knew that he gambled literally with both of their lives right now but somehow he just knew that this was going to be alright. So he took the leap and believed into his gut feeling.

The two deities looked a bit taken aback at each other, then around in the shop at the suddenly silent animals, then Sofu suddenly stood and walked over to Leon to then look the man into his eyes for a very long while.

After what seemed to be an eternity the old Count walked slowly back to his eat like an old man and sat heavily down again, clearly a bit stunned. It mystified D and Leon equally seeing him somewhat space out right in front of both. "Uhh… is he ok, D?" The aforementioned shrugged helplessly at the question, not exactly knowing either and suddenly stood up to himself have also look at Leon in the end.

Leon in the meanwhile, had for the second time this day the weird feeling of some kind of alien presence sorting through his mind and soul. Again he did nothing to fight it out, having the strong believe that he had done nothing wrong in his live so badly that it deserved a punishment like those he had seen in his dreams. In the end his D suddenly went to his knees and hugged the flabbergasted Leon with a sob.

"Hey! Huh? Eh, D?! Someone here wants to tell me what's the fuck going on? I can't have done something that bad to have you cry on me now… or did I? Why are you crying, D? Come on, this is not funny! Damn!" D just went on to hang to Leon while he cried like a lunatic into the helplessly him holding arms of Leon. The count finally found his voice back to answer Leon's questions all in one.

His face and voice betrayed his surprise clearly to the concerned and stalk white faced Leon.

"To answer your formerly brazen question about deserving punishment or not, Mr. Orcrot: No, you actually do not, what is a wonder in itself. Chris, I knew already to be a good child and soul. He never did something wrong in his life before nor do I think that he ever will, to be honest."

He gave Leon a intense look out of his golden eyes. One that had Leon suddenly want to hide in some hole away from the old being in fright. Strangely enough as that was.

"You, detective, are something so unlike anything that I have ever meet in my very long existence as one human can manage it to be. A human being that never went and killed without a reason, only when you needed it, you did and always only to protect others but never only yourself.

You also never went and have pettily judged others, as weird as that is for someone in your line of duty.

You do not judge, you do not go and destroy others or other beings in general, you do not steal, lye or envy even others for what they have that you have not. Instead you try to protect the weak with your own life put on the line even, if needed. You help out the ones that have otherwise no one, go and protect others from themselves if needed and if that is nearly killing you, you care not as long you did manage to help them. And that all, without ever asking for something in return, wanting to be rewarded or anything else of that line. Just happy with it that you did something what you call the right thing to do, in your little mind.

You, Leon are a human like no other that I have seen since a few Millennia and that is confusing me greatly because I thought such as you and your brother to be extinct!

That your race has lost such innocence like Chris still has it and such pious people like you on their way to dominate every other species on this planet. You have not even an ounce of thirst for power in you! I don't know how you managed to stay like this in this world, but it gives me something to mull over for a while, detective. Something that I thought I would never have to do since I really believed until now that humans like you are a myth!" He gave Leon's bewildered look a laugh and rubbed his face wearily.

"What do you mean by that, Sofu san? What's is so strange about me just being a good cop or thinking like that?"

The other laughed wearily again, then he gave Leon a honest smile that made Leon's mind reel. Somehow he had passed a test and had not realized it, Leon analyzed and shuddered slightly. Whatever it had been about, he had passed and he wasn't so sure that it had been a good thing but he would life with the consequences as long he could keep his strange rag-tag family with him.

Standing the Count gave Leon another bittersweet smile that made Leon want to cry out of the blue.

"Nothing, child, absolutely nothing is wrong with being a good, cop and person, as you call it. What you actually are in more ways as you do realize yourself. I have to go and talk with a certain lady about disrupting the fates, even thought this time, she was right to do so before something bad would have taken place." He patted D on the head while he was still crying relieved in Leon's arms about it that Leon had passed an almost impossible judgment so easily. Then the older Count suddenly took hold on Leon's amulet string to take it out of his shirt to look at it.

After a while he handed it back to Leon.

"What are the odds for such a thing occurring?" He mused to himself and then left the perplexed looking Leon in his wake.

"He still didn't tell me what the heck he meant with this all, damnit!"

In his lap D just laughed weekly at Leon's outburst before he went back to hiccup and cry softly at Leon's sudden outburst. Much to Leon's mortification and slight worry. In the end Leon had to stay overnight since D was suddenly adamant to not let go on him and Chris for the night. Whatever was going on, the cop thought scowling up at the canopy of his lavish bed in the shop, he had no clue of it and the others weren't telling him either.

Finally he turned around with an annoyed huff and went to sleep.

The next week flew by with D acting almost eerily bizarre around him until Saturday came and with it D's father. He walked into the shop with an befuddled looking Howell in tow, who seemed not to know why he was following the one he called Doc around. At Leon's questioningly raised eyebrow the father shrugged dismissingly.

"Told you I would talk with him, didn't I?"

Leon deigned no to comment that. He had the feeling that Doc had done something to the poor man behind him, that currently glared holes into Doc's skull in his obvious anger. Then he suddenly stalked over to Leon who sat on the couch while D stood to talk to his father in the kitchen. "Did you know all the time that they are these Kami or whatever, things?!" He groused down at Leon who was unperturbed continuing with drinking his coffee. D for once had made him some, seeing how tired Leon was and having felt pity enough to have Tetsu make some.

Leon shrugged.

"Yeah, that Uhh. Well, a bit? Always thought that they weren't normal from the beginning, why?" Howell cursed profoundly and sat opposite to Leon down to take a cup of coffee for himself from the table. "I thought I would go insane with him before, but that was Nothing, compared to what I feel right now! I hoped that Doc was kidding me until he went and used his damnable powers to make me follow him around these last days, nonstop!" He gave the still calm at him looking Leon a weird gaze.

"You take this all calmer than I, son."

Leon nodded shortly, seeing suddenly Tetsu walk between the table and him. The gruffy Tao Tie sat down there and looked angrily at the agent. Leon wisely chose to scratch Tetsu behind the ears as he had seen D do, to suffuse the anger of the foul tempered man-eater before he went ballistic on the unsuspecting Howell.

"You are petting a young boy, or what looks to me like a teenager now since Doc did something to me to see animals as humans!" He told the still eerily unperturbed Leon.

He too saw Tetsu and some of the other animals lately in their other forms, sometimes had even weird conversations with them. He slowly had gotten used to that. Obviously, Howell had not. "Oh, that, Uhh… I think I got used to it. After a while. Yeah, I see them too since a while but actually care a shit to be honest. I had already before the feeling that there was something weird going on?" Howell nodded shortly.

"They did something to you too."

Leon cracked a grin at his defeated sounding quip. "Naah, I just don't see the problem, you know? It is actually rather nice at times to talk with them. And he here can actually cook like a pro, trust me in that! As long he does not try to cook something forbidden in my line of thoughts that is… ah never mind." He gave Tetsu a grin that was echoed from the bemused Totetsu that still tried to bite him each time he saw an opening, much to D's wry amusement.

Leon had simply taken to watch out more and often showed the teenager something else as his hide into the mouth instead.

One time it was a lamp staff another time a cake. The latter had D in a fit in under ten seconds since it was ruined afterwards. The two got thrown out that day for a few hours. Much to their mutual chagrin. It had become a new game between him and Tetsu in of late.

One, that the other animals in the shop watched with great amusement from the safe sidelines. One time Tetsu was winning, other times did Leon. Tetsu had become friendlier to Leon after what the oldest Count had told to Leon. The animals milling around him had become more in exchange. They now had taken to rather pester the poor cop when he was inside the shop.

Right now, Leon tried not to think about it that he felt and saw a rattle snake crawl inside of his pats leg to suck up his warmth better that way and watched instead the scowling agent drink his coffee.

On his left shoulder perched daintily a like a strangely clothed looking young man, that was a lesser bird of paradise in truth. He had squinted at each of the persons he lately spoke to before he did open his mouth. Not wanting to look odd to Jill or the others in the end. More then once he had caught himself just barely to speak to a animal in front of other humans.

D had become a rather strange kind of an lovely pest in the last days too.

His friend had lately turned out to be rather clingy in Leon's opinion but he did not really mind D much. Actually Leon enjoyed himself quite a big deal too. Especially when he saw D scowl at the woman that lately suddenly seemed to loiter around the confused Leon outside the shop. He did not really get it why they suddenly seem to want to do that now and not in the past. He ignored them nonchalantly all the same at any given time for D now. The latter had noted that and had smiled rather pleased when seeing this, what had Leon's stomach every time make odd loops when he saw that secretive smile play around D's lips.

Leon felt often the urge to kiss D in the late and one of these day's he knew he would lose it and damned do so.

That moment both Kami's chose to come back and Howell was dragged out with Doc again before he knew what had hit him. Leon just watched while he felt the bird leave him and D lean instead against him. "What an odd pair if you ask me, D." He told his companion while he stared after the weird couple. D just nodded and leaned into Leon more.

"Yes, I agree. They truly make an odd duo as you put it, Leon san. At least the two now have stopped to fight with each other, a wonder if you ask me. You need to go to the lawyer later?" Leon shook his head. "No. I did that already yesterday, remember? I wanted to take Chris out to the baseball game this evening. Wanna come too?" D shook his head with a sad smile.

"No, regretfully I have an appointment with a customer that I need to take care of."

He smiled at Leon who smiled back and watched D go to a new customer that had entered. He watched the woman silently. She made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up in disgust, out of a point that Leon could not get. The snake currently tried to strangle his leg and Tetsu growled softly at her from his spot between his feet.

*Of course, why not! It had already to be one of those customers that flies into the shop on this sunny morning at this early hour, wonderful this will go on for the entire damn day! Mark my words.*

He groused right into Leon's mind. Leon had lately found out that he had seemingly developed a kind of instinct that concerned people that were potential contract breakers of D's contracts when they came inside. He grimaced and put his cup down.

He had also lately begun to hear the animals talk to his mind like Chris, who had been overjoyed to have Leon now hear them this way too.

Ever since then, his life had become a bit easier around them. The beasts could now talk freely without to have to watch themselves all the time around Leon. Sure, that too meant that he now had to listen to their teasing him all the time too, especially to those jokes of that three times cursed fox boy, but Leon slowly learned to deal with that.

Tetsu mostly was good company now, the two found out one day that Leon and he often thought eerily the same, concerning others. It had amused them both seriously when finally finding that one out.

"Yeah I noticed too." Leon softly spoke back to the beast. The hang on talking via mind only still eluded Leon somewhat. He stood carefully not to spook D's customer away and went like a ghost into the kitchen behind the shops entrance rooms. There he put down his coffee again and sat on a chair to drink it in silence and peace.

Tetsu watched the cop doing so, Chris was out to a check out his new school with a woman from the children's care bureau and would not be back before two in the afternoon.

The man took this all silently and eerily calmly. He understood that the dragon lady had something to do with it and didn't question his Lord's luck in this. All knew that Leon was off limits for them. D had made that clear right away and hey, he couldn't even blame his Kami in this for once. D deserved a good mate, Tetsu sighed. Even if it had to be the bloody idiot brother of Chris in the end. Hopefully the moron would not run out at the first signs and do something foolish.

The most humans had trouble with such relationships between seemingly fully Male/Male beings.

Although, Leon was surprisingly enduring to the slowly growing signs of affection from his god. Tetsu mulled about that for a few minutes before he shrugged it off. Not his concern he figured, as long Leon did not run out on the Count. He took another chair and slouched into it with a scowl. He hated it in the late when such humans as that woman came into the shop. Why did all else beside this moron had to be bad humans?

Tetsu simply failed to get it.

Ten too, from what he was told. The spirit fox sat often in his rooms now and tried to figure that riddle presented to him out. No avail until now, Tetsu knew, and most likely not into the near future to come either. Next to him Leon took to pet the irritated Totetsu again. Soon Tetsu was loosing his trail of thoughts and simply napped right with his head on the table while Leon grinned softly above him. It always amused him anew how fast Tetsu could be calmed down with a good scratching and petting.

D who chose to look into the kitchen in his search for Leon, laughed softly at the presenting picture.

The two arch rivals were silent for once and not fighting at all. Rather Leon seem to genially care for Tetsu for once, while the other slept peacefully and content, half in Leon's lap half onto the chair and table. Slipping inside, D helped to place the Tao Tie so that he could rest more comfortably before he too took a seat.

"She is gone." He told Leon with a soft smile directed at Tetsu who had suddenly snuggled up to Leon in his sleep. Both watched the beast amused. "Figures he was right then, eh?" The Kami nodded calmly. "Yes, actually quite right. I fear this will be another one of your investigations in no time, my dear Leon." The man across of him thought over that for a while before he shrugged.

"Do I want to know beforehand what she took home with her?" He asked D as hushed as the other talked to him too.

There was no need to wake the resting Tetsu unnecessary up. He had been busy the last nights, making food for several beasts in awaiting the birth of their young. Most of them got hunger pangs in the middle of the night and Tetsu often chose to make food for them then. A task the most in here seem to respect him for.

Leon eyed a horn tip that snuggled up too near to his stomach for his taste and carefully moved Tetsu's horn away from him.

"I think it is this time better for you if you do, yes. An as extinct labeled kind of the feline category, I think your researchers call them saber tooth." Leon gave D a sharp look that had the Kami gulp. "Please tell me it is not one of the cubs!" He furiously whispered, suddenly feeling incensed. D hurried to ease his worries. "No! She is one of the bigger family but not a real saber tooth, rather an under species that we still had safely in the shop and an adult. I know you would not like the twins to be sold to someone, rest assured, me neither!"

The two shortly glared each other down then both blushed and looked away.

*Why don't you two already go and kiss each other senseless and spare us all the darn trouble all the time, darn it! You two pussyfoot around each other now since you have meet, honestly! The pheromones that you two give off all the time are a death give away to everyone else besides you two oafs, you know?" Between them, Tetsu suddenly groused that up to D and Leon. Then he stood and went to his room, rubbing his tired eyes.

The two chastised persons in the kitchen blushed furiously the meanwhile.

Suddenly Leon had enough and leaned in before D could flee and he could think it over again. The kiss was sweet and simply mind-blowing addictive. So D leaned in after they separated for air to kiss Leon this time around. That went on for a while until both heard the giggles behind them. In the doorway stood half of the ships occupants piled onto each other and peeped into the kitchen at the now tomato red blushing couple.

Including Tetsu who wryly scratched his head seeing them kiss.

*Didn't know that would do the trick. Hell, had I known that before, I would have told that to you two hopeless fools a while ago already to do!" He muttered to himself when he crawled over the slowly vanishing pile of animals turned people in the door to the kitchen. Leon and D shared a look before both broke out in rancorous laughter.

That beast was sometimes too good to be true!

**Suryallee **


End file.
